Description

Identify, assess and control working-at-height risks

Working at height remains one of the most serious occupational safety risks across construction, maintenance, logistics, manufacturing, utilities and industrial operations. A single missing guardrail, unsuitable ladder, damaged anchor point or delayed rescue can result in life-changing or fatal injuries.

The SafetyNet Labs Working at Height Scenario & Risk Database – Professional Edition provides a comprehensive and structured Excel-based tool for identifying, assessing and managing working-at-height risks.

The database contains 288 professionally developed scenarios, covering 16 hazard groups and 18 common working-at-height environments. Each scenario includes initial and residual risk scoring, preventive and mitigative Lines of Defence, equipment requirements, rescue considerations and critical verification points.

What is included?

The Professional Edition contains eight fully developed worksheets:

• Management Dashboard
• Scenario Database
• Height Work Decision Matrix
• Equipment Selection Guide
• Rescue Planning
• Fine & Kinney Scales and Legend
• Sources and Professional Guidance
• Start Here – Implementation Workflow

288 working-at-height scenarios

The database covers scenarios associated with:

• Flat, pitched and fragile roofs
• Rooflights and concealed openings
• Portable ladders and stepladders
• Fixed ladders, towers and chimneys
• Tube-and-fitting and system scaffolds
• Mobile tower scaffolds
• Boom-type MEWPs and aerial lifts
• Scissor lifts and vertical platforms
• Warehouse racking and mezzanines
• Trucks, tankers and container tops
• Steel erection and formwork
• Leading edges and floor openings
• Cranes, gantries and elevated machinery
• Wind turbines and transmission structures
• Rope access and façade maintenance
• Excavations and shafts
• Tree work and arboriculture
• Pipe racks, tanks and process platforms

Comprehensive hazard coverage

The 16 hazard groups include:

• Unprotected edges and openings
• Fragile surfaces and rooflights
• Unsafe ladders and access routes
• Scaffold and platform failure
• MEWP instability, entrapment and ejection
• Personal fall-protection system failure
• Unsuitable anchors, lifelines and fall clearance
• Falling objects and dropped materials
• Slips, trips and poor housekeeping
• Wind, rain, snow, ice, heat and lightning
• Structural overload and collapse
• Electrical and process-energy hazards
• Vehicles, plant and moving equipment
• Human factors, competence and fatigue
• Permit, planning and contractor-interface failures
• Rescue failure and suspension trauma

Risk assessment with Fine & Kinney

Every scenario includes editable values for:

• Consequence
• Exposure
• Probability
• Initial risk score and risk class
• Residual consequence, exposure and probability
• Residual risk score and risk class

The workbook automatically calculates and classifies the risks. Conditional formatting makes high and very high risks immediately visible.

Four Lines of Defence categories

Each scenario contains practical control measures divided into:

• Engineering LOD – Preventive
• Engineering LOD – Mitigative
• Administrative LOD – Preventive
• Administrative LOD – Mitigative

This structure helps users distinguish between measures that prevent a fall and measures that limit the consequences when prevention fails.

Control-hierarchy decision support

The database follows the recognised working-at-height hierarchy:

1. Avoid working at height wherever reasonably practicable.
2. Use an existing safe workplace or collective protection.
3. Use work-restraint or positioning systems.
4. Use fall arrest only where higher-order controls cannot adequately control the risk.

The Height Work Decision Matrix contains nine critical safety gates. If a critical gate fails, the work should not begin.

Equipment Selection Guide

A dedicated worksheet supports the selection of:

• Ground-based and remote methods
• Permanent stairs and working platforms
• Mobile elevating work platforms
• Scaffolds and mobile towers
• Portable ladders and stepladders
• Work-restraint systems
• Personal fall-arrest systems
• Rope-access systems

For each method, the workbook identifies suitable applications, advantages, limitations, essential inspections and common stop-work triggers.

Rescue and suspension-trauma planning

Personal fall arrest is incomplete without a workable rescue plan. The Rescue Planning worksheet addresses:

• Foreseeable fall and suspension scenarios
• Alarm and communication arrangements
• Rescue anchors and load paths
• Protected access to the casualty
• Raising, lowering and casualty recovery
• Suspension-trauma exposure
• Energy and process isolation
• Medical response
• Rescue-equipment readiness
• Competence and realistic rescue drills

The database encourages users to test the rescue plan at the actual location using the actual access route, anchors, equipment and foreseeable casualty constraints.

Management dashboard

The formula-driven dashboard provides a clear overview of:

• Total scenarios
• Initial and residual high-risk scenarios
• Scenarios requiring further action
• Scenarios where work should be avoided or prohibited
• Rescue-failure scenarios
• Assessment and action status
• Average calculated risk reduction
• Top five residual-risk priorities
• Initial versus residual risk profile

Suitable for

This professional database can support:

• HSE and EHS managers
• Safety professionals and consultants
• Construction companies
• Industrial maintenance departments
• Warehousing and logistics organisations
• Roofing and façade contractors
• Utilities and telecommunications companies
• Wind-energy operators
• Process industries
• Facilities-management organisations
• Work-at-height trainers
• Contractors and permit-to-work coordinators

International professional baseline

The content is based on recognised international sources, including OSHA requirements, the UK Work at Height Regulations and HSE guidance, Safe Work Australia guidance, EU Directive 2009/104/EC and NIOSH fall-prevention resources.

The workbook is written entirely in English and is suitable for international organisations and multilingual safety-management environments.

File format

• Microsoft Excel .xlsx
• 288 editable scenarios
• Automatic formulas and risk classifications
• Filters and dropdown validation
• Professionally designed dashboard
• Fully editable owner, status, applicability, target-date and notes fields
• No specialist software required beyond a compatible spreadsheet application

Important professional-use notice

This database is a scenario library and risk-assessment aid. It does not constitute a completed workplace risk assessment, equipment inspection, anchor design, work-at-height permit, rescue plan, certification or legal opinion.

Every scenario, score and control measure must be validated against the actual task, workplace, equipment, fall distance, surface condition, weather, workforce and applicable jurisdiction. The hierarchy of controls and critical safety prerequisites always take priority over the numerical risk score.

SafetyNet Labs Working at Height Scenario & Risk Database – Professional Edition
A structured professional foundation for identifying fall hazards, selecting suitable controls and managing working-at-height risks.